2013 Highlights

Data are based on the CPS ASEC sample of 68,000 addresses. The 2014 CPS ASEC included redesigned questions for income and health insurance coverage. All of the approximately 98,000 addresses were eligible to receive the redesigned set of health insurance coverage questions. The redesigned income questions were implemented to a subsample of these 98,000 addresses using a probability split panel design. Approximately 68,000 addresses were eligible to receive a set of income questions similar to those used in the 2013 CPS ASEC and the remaining 30,000 addresses were eligible to receive the redesigned income questions. The source of the 2013 data is the portion of the CPS ASEC sample which received the income questions consistent with the 2013 CPS ASEC, approximately 68,000 addresses.

In 2013, the official poverty rate was 14.5 percent, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This was the first decrease in the poverty rate since 2006.

In 2013, there were 45.3 million people in poverty. For the third consecutive year, the number of people in poverty at the national level was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate.

The 2013 poverty rate was 2.0 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession.

The poverty rate for children under 18 fell from 21.8 percent in 2012 to 19.9 percent in 2013. 1

The poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 13.6 percent, while the rate for people aged 65 and older was 9.5 percent. Neither of these poverty rates were statistically different from their 2012 estimates.

Both the poverty rate and the number in poverty decreased for Hispanics in 2013.

Despite the decline in the national poverty rate, the 2013 regional poverty rates were not statistically different from the 2012 rates.

Footnotes:

Since unrelated individuals under 15 are excluded from the poverty universe, there are 430,000 fewer children in the poverty universe than in the total civilian noninstitutionalized population.